Sunday, December 30, 2012

Artist Feature: Li Yixian

Yixian is a friend of mine who likes to sketch. Her cartoon drawings of memories of her travels never fail to amuse me as she captures interesting moments and experiences with a humble pencil and some colour pencils on normal A4 paper. No expensive art materials are needed - not even flashy artistry - just a keen eye, a sense of humour and lots of heart. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Yixian.

SD: Hi Yixian. I love your cartoons about your travels. Lots of artists sketch the sights they see on location, but you seem to prefer to record your experiences. Can you share with us what got you started sketching your travels?

YX: Thanks! I started sketching my travels 'coz I think it's an interesting way to record my travel experiences.

SD: Do you have any art training? Where did you learn to draw?

YX: I attended a 8-session portrait pencil sketching course in NAFA about four years ago. That's all the art training that I've got.

SD: Tell us a little bit about your process.

YX: The process is very simple. I draw with pencils and colour with colour pencils. But I don't colour everything, usually only the clothes and hair.

SD: What kind of materials do you use? Is there any particular reason for using them?

YX: I use 2B pencils and Faber-castell colour pencils. I use them because that's all I have at home. :-P

SD: Why do you draw about your travels? Is there a reason you use the cartoon artform?

YX: There's no particular reason why I use the cartoon artform except that I do not know how to use other artforms! But I do like cartoons a lot. There's one Japanese cartoonist that I like every much--Takagi Naoko (高木直子). She draws about her daily life as well as travels. I guess I might have been influenced by her.

SD: Do you have your sketches online if some of our readers want to see more of them?

YX: For now, I only upload them to my facebook page to share my experiences with my friends.

SD: Is there anything you would like to say to our readers, especially those who think they may like to sketch about their travels but don't think they're good enough to do so?

YX: I think anybody can draw! You just have to get started and you'll get better and better at it. Although I don't draw very well yet, I think I have improved a little since when I first started drawing.